The function, held at the bowling club on Saturday night after the race meeting, attracted a wide cross-section of the racing fraternity from throughout the region and was an outstanding success.

Singled out for special praise were WRA secretary Anne Hall and the Gilgandra Jockey Club, led by Andrew Schier, who were the chief organisers of a very professional yet friendly awards night.

A panel of judges from outside the WRA took into account many factors when deciding the category winners for most outstanding race meeting conducted during the 2011-12 season.

The winners were:

o WRA TAB Club: Coonabarabran Jockey Club

o WRA Picnic Club: Tottenham Picnic Race Club

o WRA Community Club: Cobar Miners Race Club

The other finalists for the community club award were Carinda, Louth and Lightning Ridge.

All 25 clubs in the WRA were eligible for the Race Club of the Year award. The panel of judges considered sponsorship, attendances, community involvement, co-ordination with other local events, programming initiatives, quality of on-course and off-course presentation, quality of race participants, financial returns to the industry and club trading performance with Coonabarabran Jockey Club announced as WRA Club of the Year.

President of the WRA Michael Kennedy congratulated all clubs in the association and noted every WRA club is in a sound financial position.

A popular winner of the WRA Horse of the Year was the magnificent grey gelding Spectacular Iam, trained at Narromine by Kylie Kennedy for a Mudgee-based syndicate.

The various WRA premiership winners also received their awards.

Leading jockey - Greg Ryan, leading apprentice - Hannah Martin, leading approved rider - Stuart Brown, were recognised as were the joint winners of the trainers premiership George Wright (Parkes) and Brett Thompson (Mudgee).

The final award announced was a highlight of the night with Bob Foran from Gilgandra receiving the WRA Special Achievement Award.

This award seeks to recognise a person, club or organisation that has contributed to and/or achieved outstanding results which have led to the betterment of the Western Racing Association.

Bob Foran has been a race caller in the region since 1951 and called the Gilgandra meeting on Saturday.

At one stage Foran was a successful trainer with three Gilgandra Cup winners and two Sydney winners coming from his small team.

Foran also officiated for some time on the WRA stewards panel and received a standing ovation when accepting his award.